The Hindu : Front Page : No CET for law

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 19, 2007
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No CET for law

J. Venkatesan

Supreme Court stays High Court order

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a Madras High Court judgment that directed the Tamil Nadu Government to hold a Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to five-year or three-year courses in the eight law colleges in the State for 2007-2008.

A three-Judge Bench comprising Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari stayed the June 19 judgment on a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the State challenging the judgment.

The Bench, after hearing senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi for the State and K.M. Vijayan for one of the students, stayed the operation of the judgment and issued notice to the respondents.

Policy decision

Mr. Singhvi submitted that the State government had abolished the CET for engineering, medical and other professional courses and decided to admit students on the basis of marks obtained in the higher secondary examination. For law courses also a Government Order was passed in April abolishing the CET.

The High Court had struck down the G.O. and directed the holding of a CET for admissions to law colleges. He said the government took the policy decision as the CET system was disadvantageous to rural students.

There was insufficient time to conduct the CET this year, and hence admissions should be allowed on the basis of higher secondary marks, he pleaded.

Stay opposed

Mr. Vijayan opposed the granting of a stay, contending that the CET system that was in existence for 23 years should continue, and that the High Court judgment should not be disturbed.

The State in its SLP said: “The Rules made by the Bar Council of India do not require that admission into law degree courses shall be made only on the basis of CET. There was no arbitrariness in the method of selection of students as selection was done purely on the basis of merit.”

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